United Nations researchers just published a sweeping study
on the roots of sexual violence, spanning six countries and two years.
The survey, which they say represents the world’s largest scientific
project into the subject so far, aimed to investigate the
“under-researched” area of male-perpetrated rape. On average, about one in ten men living in the region included in the study said they had raped someone at some point in their lives.

The UN study included over 10,000 men from Bangladesh, China,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. The researchers
caution that some regional attitudes about sexuality in Southeastern
Asia may contribute to the results that they gathered across those six
countries. Still, though, there are some big takeaways from their
findings. Here’s what the new research can tell us about the landscape
of sexual violence as a whole:

Many people have the wrong idea about what “rape” actually is.
The researchers intentionally didn’t use the word “rape” in any of
their questionnaires about Asian men’s sexual histories. Instead, they asked men
whether they had ever “forced a woman who was not your wife or
girlfriend at the time to have sex,” or if they had ever “had sex with a
woman who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether she wanted it.”
That likely helped researchers gather more accurate information about
the nonconsensual sexual acts that men had engaged in. Since many people
don’t learn the lines of consent,
many sexually active adults may not understand when they’re violating
someone else — and they may not believe they have actually raped
someone. “Rape doesn’t just involve someone with a gun to a woman’s
head,” Michele Decker, a public health professor who co-wrote the
commentary that accompanied the new study, pointed out to CBS News. “People tend to think of rape as something someone else would do.”

Rape occurs within marriages, too. Along those
lines, many people think about rape as something that occurs between
strangers, when women are accosted by criminals in dark alleyways. But
that’s not the reality of sexual assault. The UN survey found that rape
between married partners was more prevalent
than rape among people who were not in a romantic relationship. Studies
conducted within the United States have revealed similar results about
the prevalence of intimate partner violence
in this country. When it comes to educating people about sexual
assault, it’s important to emphasize that consent never carries over —
that is, even when it comes to spouses who have had consensual sex many
times before, neither of them have consented to every instance of sexual
contact their partner may demand in the future.

Repeat offenses are very high among rapists. Nearly half of the respondents who said they had raped at least once went on to rape multiple victims.
Nearly 23 percent said they had raped two to three people, 12 percent
say they had raped four to ten people, and about 4 percent said they had
raped more than ten people. Here in the United States, some research
has drawn similar conclusions about repeat rapists at the college level.
A Harvard University study
found that the young men who commit a rape in college are likely to
become serial offenders — and many of them do, since lenient sexual
assault policies on college campuses often allow them to evade punishment.

Unhealthy attitudes about sexuality take root at a young age.
More than half of the study’s respondents who admitted they had
violated someone’s consent were teenagers when they first raped someone.
Most sexual crimes recorded in the study occurred when men were between
the ages of 15 and 19. The authors point out this finding “reinforces
the need for early rape prevention.” Sexual violence prevention
advocates in the U.S. say that this type of education can begin with comprehensive sex ed.
Teaching kids about the bodies from an early age helps instill a sense
of self-confidence and ownership in them. Then, they’re more likely to
avoid violating another person’s consent, or be more willing to speak up
when someone tries to violate theirs.

Men rape because they have been taught that they have a right to claim women’s bodies. One of the fundamental concepts at the heart of “rape culture”
is the idea that rape is inevitable, men can’t help themselves, and
women must therefore work to protect themselves against it. Within the
context of rape culture, the idea that men are entitled to sexual
experiences is deeply entrenched. The UN researchers found that this
attitude is pervasive among the rapists they surveyed. Among the men who
acknowledged they had sexually assaulted someone else, more than 70
percent of them said they did it because of “sexual entitlement.” Forty percent said they were angry or wanted to punish the woman. About half of the men said they did not feel guilty.

Rape typically goes unpunished in Southeast Asia.
Just 23 percent of the men who said they had raped someone had actually
been imprisoned for their crimes. That trend holds true outside of the
Southeast Asian countries that were included in the study. The Rape,
Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) estimates that, after
factoring in the extremely high number of rape cases that go unreported
to the police, about three percent of U.S. rapists end up serving jail time. This has been a particularly contentious issue on college campuses lately, where many rapists receive extremely light punishments, like being assigned essays and placed on social probation, instead of being expelled.

***

“It’s clear violence against women is far more widespread in the
general population than we thought,” Rachel Jewkes, a member of South
Africa’s Medical Research Council and the leader of the new study, said in a statement about her results. Previous research that Jewkes also oversaw found thatone in three women worldwide
has experienced some type of intimate partner violence, prompting the
World Heath Organization to declare it an “epidemic” global health
problem.

Jewkes and her fellow researchers hope that their new study — one of
the first to focus on male perpetrators of sexual assault, rather than
female victims — will help encourage concrete policy changes to reverse
some of the dynamics that contribute to rape culture. “Prevention of
rape is essential,” they conclude.
“Interventions must focus on childhood and adolescence, and address
culturally rooted male gender socialization and power relations, abuse
in childhood, and poverty.”

The most important part of this study is the "revelation" that early education on sexuality is a key deterrent. My son is 9 and we have already discussed respecting another person's body and taking no for an answer when someone doesn't want to be touched. This factor is extremely important in the AA community because we push our boys to do things that show they are not gay. Unfortunately it includes some parents thinking their sons getting coochie is a "good" thing. Then its your boys calling you weak etc. when your girl is not giving it up.

Probably very similar for yt boys but I just don't have the time right now for all the entitlement issues in that demographic. But it is a major issue. Like the ones who are "serving their country" feel entitled to have whatever female is enlisted and within proximity as a reward.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum